Pretend Paris with B :)

Claudia Cook February 26 at 8:21pm

Well, today has been a "pretend" eventful day. :) We landed in Paris France this morning and had a layover for a few hours. Not a whole lot of time but enough to get to eat some yummy French food at a little cafe on the Champs Elysees, visit the Arc de Triumphe, and the Eiffel Tower.



After lunch, we got to spend some time at the Arc de Triumphe.


This is a really big Arc that Napoleon commissioned after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 but it finished in 1836 when he was already dead! Its the largest in the world at 50 meters high.

The first thing we did was look at the tomb of the unknown soldier that lies under the Arc. Along the walls there are a lot of engravings showing battles, and hundreds of names most of them are French generals.

Then we bought our ticket and walked up, there is a small museum before the terrace, it was helpful to recover after climbing 283 steps :)

The best part of course is at the top where you can enjoy a 360’ view over the city, checking the madness along the 12 avenues that start from here (one of them is Champs Elyesses) taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower was also amazing. :)
Built between 1887 and 1889, the "Iron Lady" was built as the entrance to the Exposition Universelle, a World fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution.

At 324 meters high, it was at the time the tallest building in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was completed. Amazingly, it was originally intended to be a temporary structure for the duration of the exposition.




As fun as this pretend layover was we were relieved to make it back to the airport to board our flight to Barcelona. We only had an hour and 45 minutes until landing in beautiful Barcelona Spain. We will rest tonight and tour a little bit tomorrow before boarding our cruise ship at 5 pm. :)

Thanks for the fun day!
Love you
Mom

Pretend Vacation with my Awesome Daughter!

So, this has been the longest week EVER! I have to admit that I have been a little bit grumpy. I decided that I need a vacation and since I don't really have the time or the money right now I decided that a "pretend vacation" with one of my very best friends, (she just happens to be my daughter too), Briana was in order.

After informing her that we were going to go on a pretend cruise and that I would call our pretend travel agent to have her get started on our pretend itinerary, Briana informed me that she would pretend to get excited for it too. This little interchange got me thinking. How fun would it be to REALLY go on a pretend vacation?? It just so happens that it is starting out to be very fun. I thought it would be a fun idea to share it here on our blog. :)

Someday when we have lots of time (and lots of money) maybe Briana and I can really go on our vacation but until then we will make some great memories and enjoy our "pretend" time together. I hope you enjoy it too. Make sure you let us know if you would like us to pick up any pretend souvenirs for you.

The Plan:

Claudia Cook February 24 at 10:41pm
OK, here are the details. We are going on a pretend 9 Day European Cruise on Carnival Cruise Line. We will be on the ship "Carnival Magic". On this cruise we will take turns telling each other what we will be seeing, buying, and doing while in our ports. :) It's a fun way to get to know different places and tell each other about them. It doesn't have to happen every day, I know we have busy lives, but the other person can not tell about their port until the previous one has been done. I will start first. :)

We start our pretend cruise vacation by flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Barcelona, Spain. We have 2 stops along the way: first in Phoenix, Arizona and next in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From Philadelphia we fly directly to Barcelona. I will start out our adventure tomorrow in Barcelona and tell you all of the fun things we will do there before we board our ship at 5pm. Once we board the ship our itinerary is as follows:
Day One: Leave Barcelona 5pm
Day Two: Monaco 9am-8pm
Day Three: Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy 7am-7pm
Day Four: Rome, Italy 7am-10pm
Day Five: Naples, Italy 7am-7pm
Day Six: Messina (Sicily), Italy 7am-6pm
Day Seven: Fun Day at Sea
Day Eight: Palma De Malorca, Spain 7am-4pm
Day Nine: Marseiles, France 8am-6pm
Day Ten: Barcelona, Spain 5am

I will be our "guide" on days 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. You will be in charge of 3, 5, 7, and 9. (After I do days one and two you will have an idea of what I am talking about, if you are kind of lost right now, haha). So get to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow as we prepare to board our flight! Got those pretend bags packed and pretend money ready??

This should be fun (and will give us some practice for when we can do this for real some day)!

Love you, Mom

Our Suite on the ship :)

Briana Mishel Cortney Cook February 24 at 10:54pm

This is such a cool Idea:):):):) I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And i am so so so excited:) I love you mommy see you in the morning:)

Claudia Cook February 25 at 11:52pm

THE FLIGHT
Today we boarded our plane for Barcelona. Our flight was changed (because this is my pretend world and I thought it would be much cooler to have a layover in Paris and not Arizona or Pennsylvania). ;-) So not too much excitement...yet. My in flight movie was Narnia, not a bad flick. Airplane food is...well...airplane food. But don't you fear, after our 13 hour flight and a good nights sleep we will have a few hours during our layover tomorrow to explore a little bit of Paris. Get your French ready, I will wake you up when we land. Good night! Love you.

Day One!

Day One. A photo of myself and how my day was...

So I thought this would be a funny picture of myself because if anyone really knows me they know that I DO NOT cook. I don't enjoy it and honestly, I'm not very good at it. I am not afraid or ashamed to admit it! :) I have many things that I do enjoy and that I am good at so I don't feel bad that cooking is not one of them. However, I was pretty proud of this pie.

Now on to my day. I had plans to start out my day early, head to work at 6am so I could get some stuff done before the craziness hit...didn't work. I slept in until 7 and didn't get to work until 8. I did get my paperwork done though, it just took a little longer than I wanted. I am working at Planet Fitness in Ogden and we have been open for about 3 weeks now. It has been pretty crazy but tons of fun. So my day was spent at the gym from 8am to 6:45pm. Now I get to finish the day by hanging out with my awesome hubby and kids.

Not too exciting but hey, it's my life!

30 Day Blogging Challenge

My awesome Sista S, copied something from her friend that I am copying from her. It is an awesome idea and I am glad that she found it. It is the 30 day blogging challenge. The whole idea behind the blog challenge is to learn more about yourself while giving others the chance to get a glimpse of who you are also. I hope that my friends will take the challenge as well because it is always fun to learn new things. Here's the list:

30 day blogging challenge

Day one~ A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

Day two~ A photo of something you ate today.

Day three~ Your idea of the perfect first date.

Day four~ Your favorite photograph of your best friend.

Day five~ A photo of yourself two years ago.

Day six~ A photo of an animal you would like to keep as a pet.

Day seven~ Your dream wedding.

Day eight~ A song to match your mood.

Day nine~ A photo of the last item you purchased.

Day ten~ A photo of your favorite place to eat.

Day eleven~ What's in your makeup bag?

Day twelve~ A photograph of the town you love in.

Day thirteen~ Your favorite musician and why?

Day fourteen~ A TV show that you are currently addicted to.

Day fifteen~ Something you don't leave the house without.

Day sixteen~ Your celebrity crush.

Day seventeen~ A photo of you and your family.

Day eighteen~ Something you crave a lot.

Day ninteen~ Another picture of yourself.

Day twenty~ The meaning behing your blog name.

Day twenty-one~ A photo of something that makes you happy.

Day twenty-two~ A letter to someone who has hurt you lately.

Day twenty-three~ 15 facts about you.

Day twenty-four~ A photo of something that means a lot to you.

Day twenty-five~ What's in your purse?

Day twenty-six~ A photo of somewhere you've been.

Day twenty-seven~ A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?

Day twenty-eight~ Your favorite movie.

Day twenty-nine~ Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day thirty~ A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past.

Now comes the really fun part. Today I start my 30 day blogging adventure. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am going to enjoy doing it.

P.S. Now it's your turn. :)

Cookin with Mom

Aidan has always been our little "cook". We decided to get creative last week and make some apple and cherry turnovers. During this process I was reminded why I do NOT like to cook. It was fun playing in the kitchen with Aidan though.

The final product!

Treehouse Museum

We took Aidan to the Treehouse Museum with my Mom and Sister. What a fun place!

Aidan got to act in a short play while there

King Aidan

Queen Claudia

RC the rootin tootin cowboy

One crazy ride

Should have been a cowboy

RC and Aidan working in the workshop

Exhausted after a full day at the museum

Friends and Roller Coasters

Aidan has made some great friends here in Plain City. The boys came over to our house and decided to put together James' and Aidan's rollercoaster. Their original plan was to bring it from the upstairs, to the main floor and then down stairs but the upper stairs were too steep so here is the starting point.

They took the track downstairs and then had RC help them make a few loops in it. It was fun listening to them work together and problem solve.

Just to add some variety they used shoes to prop up the track and then decided to make it go under the computer chair.

The final result was an awesome roller coaster! :) Great job boys!